This week Venus in Arms will be in London to participate at the next ASMI conference (Association for the Study of Modern Italy) and for other stuff (see, among others: Stamford Bridge). So, this Top 5 focuses exclusively on the UK (in terms of sources of news, issues, etc.).

The British “The Guardian” provides an excellent report on the “Islamic State’s Oil Empire”. A very useful analysis on refineriesand smuggling for better understanding the current context in Syria and Iraq.

The Department of War Studies at the King’s College will host a conference on “NATO ISAF Civil-Military Relations“. The event is organized by the Afghanistan Studies Group, whose website if full of articles and analyses on Afghanistan.

Moving from Afghanistan to Iraq: here you’ll find a detailed account of the UK involvement in the air strikes against ISIL.

In the meanwhile, British troops (on exercise in Poland) have been ordered not to take mobile phones or computers amid fears they will be targeted by Russian cyber spies.Here you’ll find more info on the controversial case.